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A project log for Conway's Game of Life on ATtiny84

ATtiny84-based gamed of life on 8x8 LED matrix with manual setup of 1st generation.

jean-franois-poilpretJean-François Poilpret 12/06/2016 at 22:540 Comments

Project is still in progress.

I had a hard time trying to figure out how to put all this stuff onto a 90x50mm stripboard, and finally decided to stack 2 stripboards of that size:

with pin headers to connect both stripboard (a bit like Arduino shields).

Board design is not complete yet but I'm almost there, hope to finish it tomorrow and implement it this week-end. Design is available on github (as LochMaster files).

Besides, I have ported the current prototype (with only buttons) from Arduino UNO to ATtiny84 and it works fine.

However, I noticed some issues with the light level of LEDs in the matrix; reducing resistors values helped a little bit but not that much; I need to find a way to provide enough current for a complete row of LEDs but I'd like to avoid adding transistors to the circuit...

Finally, on FastArduino library, I could finally implement Analog Digital Conversion, hence I'll soon be able to replace buttons to move cursor backward/forward with 2 pots (one for X, one for Y), which will make it faster and easier for the user to select LEDs to set for the first generation of the game.

Hopefully this week-end, the prototype will be running fine with 2 pots.

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